‘Aladdin’ bows big in U.K., Italy

“Aladdin” has rocketed to $ 126 million gross overseas, powered by record-busting weekend bows in Italy and the U.K.

In Italy, the animated musical bagged $ 1.8 million in the first weekend on 103 screens.

That was 62% up on “Beauty and the Beast’s” preem last year, and it accounted for 36% of the entire Italo market last weekend, said Buena Vista Intl. president Mark Zoradi.

It was also the biggest Disney opening ever there. Pic will build to as many as 360 prints by the Christmas week.

In the U.K. “Aladdin” rolled out on 322 screens after a platform release at the Odeon Leicester Square in London. The tally was $ 2.4 million, way up on “Beauty and the Beast’s”$ 2 million haul, making it Disney’s largest-ever nationwide preem, surpassing “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

Showing strong holding power everywhere in Europe, pic was off only 1% in its second weekend in Holland and Belgium, and down 9% in the third in Spain.

“The Three Musketeers” had an auspicious foreign bow in Israel last weekend, scoring $ 162,000 on 20 screens. Zoradi says that’s the Disney Studio’s highest opening there, eclipsing “Pretty Woman,” and second only in that territory’s all-time annals to “Jurassic Park.”